In wireless communications, a preamble is a signal that is broadcasted by a base transceiver station (BTS) to all mobile stations (MSs) for facilitating carrier and timing acquisitions. A preamble consists of a bit-sequence called the pseudonoise (PN) code. The PN code is a pseudo-random sequence of 1's and 0's. The cross-correlation and the autocorrelation of the PN codes are similar to those of white noise. Preamble detection is an essential function of a wireless station for detecting incoming signals, as the presence of a preamble with a unique sequence is indicative of an incoming signal. Here, it is generally understood that a wireless station refers to either a mobile terminal or a fixed terminal such as a BTS.
A receiver chain of a wireless station employs a preamble detection module, e.g., a correlator, to detect preamble. If there is a preamble in a receiving signal, the correlator will produce an output the magnitude of which is larger than a predetermined threshold.
In a multi-cell wireless communication system, for example, a cellular system, it is desirable to use the same frequencies repeatedly across the cellular system. The reuse of frequencies enables the wireless communication system with a limited number of radio channels to accommodate a large number of subscribers.
In such a multi-cell wireless communication system, the tolerance to interference determines the frequency reuse factor, defined as the number of distinctive frequencies per cluster of cells-adjacent to each other. Subsequently, the frequency reuse factor determines the efficiency of spectrum usage. The frequency reuse factor is positively related to the carrier to interference ratio (C/I) and negatively related to the spectrum utilization rate.
For example, if the frequency reuse factor is 3, the efficiency of spectrum usage is reduced by a factor of 3. Ideally, if all cells in a cluster use the same frequency, the frequency reuse factor would be 1. Increasing the utilization rate of the spectrum comes with a price. If the frequency reuse factor is 1, the signals from one or more BTSs or customer premise equipment (CPEs) in one cell could spill over to the adjacent cells and cause interference.
The multi-cell interference caused by frequency reuse is one of the major factors that impair the performance of a wireless communication system. The effect of multi-cell interference can be reduced by employing the beamforming method in a unicast communication, but not in broadcast or multicast communications. Preambles are broadcasted by a BTS to all the MS in a wireless communication system. Therefore, a need has arisen for an improved method and system for detecting preambles in the multi-cell communication system.